_, B. POLEVO 64 The peasants of Plavni, who supplemented the usually meagre crops they raised on their sandy, clayey soil with successful fishing in the forest lakes, were already re- ioicing that the war had passed them by. In obedience to the orders of the Germans, they renamed the chairman of their collective farm village elder, but continued to carry on as a collective farm, in the hope that the fascists would not for ever trample on Soviet soil and that they would be able to live quietly in their remote haven until the storm blew over. But the Germans in field-grey uniforms were followed by others in black uniforms with skull and crossbones on their forage-caps. The inhabitants of Plavni were ordered, on pain of severe penalties, to provide within twenty-four hours fifteen volunteers for permanent work in Germany. The volunteers were to muster in the building at the end of the village that served as the collective-farm office and fish shed, and to have with them a change of underclothing, a spoon, knife and fork and a ten days' supply of provisions. But nobody turned up at the appointed hour. It must be said that, taught by experience, the black-clad Germans, evidently, had not had much hope that anyone would turn up. To teach the village a lesson, they seized the chairman of the collective farm, that is, the village elder, Veronika Grigorievna, the elderly patron of the kindergarten, two collective-farm team-leaders, and ten other peasants they chanced to lay their hands on, and shot them. They gave orders that the bodies should not be buried and said that they would treat the whole village in the same way if the volunteers failed to turn up at the appointed place next day. Again nobody turned up. Next morning, when the Hitlerites from the SS Sonderkommando went through the village, they found every house deserted. Not a soul was in the j>lace, neither young nor old. Abandoning their homes, their land, all the belongings they had accumulated by years of toil, and almost all their cattle, the people had vanished, under cover of the night fogs that are pre- valent in those parts, without leaving a trace. The entire village, down to the last man, went off to an old clearing, deep in the forest, eighteen kilometres away. After making dugouts for their habitation, the men went to join the